beans

My Grandma’s easy minestrone soup recipe is one of the healthiest vegetable-loaded soups you’ll make, and it tastes far better than any of those Olive Garden copycat recipes thanks to the secret ingredient in the savory broth.

“It is well worth the time and effort.”

But then, isn’t most anything when it’s done with love?

My sweet Grandma Frieda passed away when I was a senior in college and while there are many things that remind me of her, as a recipe maker it’s the cookbooks I inherited from her that I see most often.

One of my favorite things about her copies of The Joy of Cooking (pub. 1953) and Epicure’s Delight (pub. 1944) are the pages and margins filled with recipes written in her elegant handwriting that as a German-immigrant shows off the hard work it took to become a part of her new country. Like the quote says above, it iswell worth the time and effort.

Nestled within those cookbook pages are recipe cards for recipes from friends like Edith’s Coffee Cake and Loretta’s Zucchini Soufflé which have both moved to my must-make list.

But the recipe that shows up time and time again is this Minestrone recipe from San Francisco’s Petrini Gourmet Grocery Stores, likely cut from the San Mateo Times’ newspaper recipe section to promote more soup bone sales for the homemade beef broth.

And because it’s #soupweek (did you see the Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup?) we’re keeping the slurps going by presenting The Gourmet by Petrini’s Minestrone Soup where either the newspaper editors or Petrini himself lured readers with the headnote mentioned above and can describe any meal when it’s made with love: It is well worth the time and effort, and even more so because this recipe is actually really easy to make.

How to Make a Traditional Minestrone

Whether you say minestrone soup like the Italians aka “min eh stron ee” or “min eh stron eh”, this soup is the perfect gateway to woo non-veggie lovers into getting a head start on their five a day. It’s brothy and flavorful with potatoes, pasta, and cheese that makes the veggies more than palatable. Use a small macaroni or pasta that matches the diced size of your veggies for equal tastes in every bite.

Because this soup has the simplest of ingredients and can be made with ease, the key is starting with the best quality you can find or afford.

Let’s start with the the broth.

Grandma’s newspaper recipe calls for a super simple stock of bones and water slow-simmered for flavor. But I like a richer, heartier stock so my homemade beef stock fit the bill here. Or if you prefer, use chicken broth (this is my favorite homemade) or a veggie stock instead. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your stock from scratch, always choose a grocery store version that’s high quality with ingredients you can actually read.

To the stock you’ll be adding diced tomatoes, adding more richness and a bit of acid to balance the flavors.

The other source for this soup’s distinctive minestrone flavor comes from the spunk of Parmesan cheese and while grandma’s recipe doesn’t call for it, I have a secret that learned of long ago: to cook the broth with a few leftover rinds of Parmesan cheese. This step really imparts that cheesy flavor and takes your broth from a tepid vegetable flavor to minestrone all the way.

What Vegetables Go In Minestrone Soup?

One of the best things about Minestrone Soup is it can truly be a clean-out-the-fridge recipe you can fiddle with based on what you have on hand or what’s in season. Traditionally, the are the vegetables that most often show up:

Tomatoes

Onion

Carrots

Celery

Potatoes

Beans (kidney and Great Northern beans are my favorites)

Peas

Zucchini

Cabbage (shred it thin)

Spinach

Kale

Leeks (use the white parts only)

Green beans (canned works wonders)

While most people think of minestrone as a vegetarian soup, Petrini’s recipe begins with salt pork. Yep, this recipe is from days gone by. I used bacon instead. To make this minestrone soup vegetarian, skip the bacon and use a rich vegetable stock in lieu of the beef stock instead.

My Grandma's Minestrone Soup

AuthorHeidi

Because this soup gets a salty bite from the bacon and a generous helping of Parmesan cheese (plus Parmesan cheese rinds cooked with the broth) go light on the salt at the beginning of the cooking time and adjust the seasoning by adding more if needed just before serving.

Instructions

Add the bacon to a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat and cook until browned but not crispy. Add the onion, carrots, leeks and celery then reduce the heat to medium and cook until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the beef stock, kosher salt, pepper, and cheese rinds. Bring to a boil then reduce to a gently rolling simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, partially covered with a lid. Add the potatoes, macaroni, and tomatoes, then partially cover with the lid, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes more. Add the kidney beans and peas, and simmer until warmed through. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your taste. Just before serving, add the grated Parmesan cheese and serve sprinkled with more Parmesan if you’d like.

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Canned beans are one of those pantry staples we always have on hand. They’re cheap, easy, fuss-free, and filling, and their versatility makes them an awesome standby for tacos, salads, soups, enchiladas, and more. To get more Sunday meal prep inspiration, check out this list of favorite dinners made with all different types of beans.

No matter how depressingly barren our pantries may get, we can always find at least one can of beans lurking in there somewhere. They’re inexpensive and efficient, and they give us protein and fiber. Plus, you can get a lot of mileage out of beans, whether incorporating them into soups and chilis, enchiladas and burritos, stuffed peppers, casseroles, salads, and more. Canned beans have saved our lives on a number of occasions when we’ve lapsed on the grocery shopping, meal planning, and budgeting. We know how busy things get and how daunting meal planning can be, which is why we’re swooping in with our free meal plans to make your life and schedule a little more organized and a lot more simplified. More time for relaxing with the new revamp of Will and Grace and a glass of wine? Yes, please!

Summer salads like this Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad with black beans, corn, avocado, and crunchy romaine lettuce topped with an easy 5-ingredient homemade BBQ sauce are more than just a first course, they make the meal.

Someone recently interviewed me and asked me what was the one food I couldn’t live without. Obviously that is a very loaded question for someone who spends their days thinking, creating and obsessing over what to eat and to cook.

I surveyed myself and did the count-off. Chocolate. Cheese. Eggs. Avocados. Wine. Pasta. Oh man, the list goes on and on. But I couldn’t really narrow it down to just one ingredient, because it’s actually a whole dish I crave over and over again, every day.

Salad.

I LOVE salad. Whether it’s a simple lettuce and dressing affair, or a full blown all-in-one-meal-deal like this BBQ chicken recipe situation, salad is the rock to my Gibralter and if I was on a desert island, I’d want to be swimming in my leafy greens.

This favorite Mexican bean dip gets its popular flavor from taco seasoning and green chiles baked in a mix of cream cheese, sour cream, and Mexican cheese—it’s definitely a crowd pleaser!

This post is in partnership with McCormick

I have several good friends who are true Texans. They’re the kind that are proud to bear a full-blown Texas sticker on the back window of their car (Nicole). They’re also those in the group photo who throw up the Longhorns hand signal whenever a group photo is taken (Laura). It’s cute. It’s endearing. And bless their hearts, they are a proud bunch.

My sister, a Utah transplant, also lives in Texas. Houston to be exact. Home to a certain football team that just might be working their way through the playoffs and who I’m in a football viewing dippable face-off where I’m representin’ Houston.

While it’s the state that bears my sister’s address on her drivers license, after 15 plus years, I think we’ve finally convinced her and the husband that they’ll eventually be coming back home to the Wasatch front. Right Holly? RIGHHHHHT???? Mom, and dad, and I are waiting for you. Just sayin’. #throwthelonghornsignhere

This lighter version of a popular restaurant’s favorite salad is packed with awesome flavor from BBQ-grilled chicken breast, jalapeños, cilantro, spiced tortilla chips, and a creamy homemade ranch dressing!

Back in the day when I had office co-workers who weren’t four-legged, who didn’t bark every time someone (or something) walked down the street, and weren’t continually nudging me with their nose for a scratch as I worked, I actually had office besties who walked rather well on two legs as we headed to Westwood’s California Pizza Kitchen to get our favorite CPK Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad for lunch.

Oh, those were the days.

These days, I’m still a fan of that CPK Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad, but not so much a fan of the calories I consume whenever I eat it. That’s why I created my own lighter version that still totally delivers on flavor and cures my salad as a meal cravings.

Shredded beef, sweet peppers and scrambled eggs make this Mexican recipe a family favorite for breakfast, brunch or brinner in under 30 minutes.

This recipe post is sponsored by the makers of HORMEL® Taco Meats because we all have #TacoGoals, and this is one of the easiest ways to meet them.

If you’re a regular follower of the blog, you know I’m a fan of scratch cooking.

But sometimes reality takes over. Life gets in the way. And when my man and my Smudge decide in the afternoon that tacos sure would fit tonight’s meal-ticket-bill, making a whole roast to serve our shredded taco cravings is simply out of the question.

But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, when Hormel Foods asked me to create a recipe using their shredded beef taco meat, I discovered it can actually be quite simple to meet our taco goals.

My husband is a Mexican food fanatic. If Taco Bell had frequent flier miles, by now we’d probably have been able to fly to Europe and back. That’s a lot of burrito supremes with crispy beef taco(s) on the side.

So today we’re curing all of our cravings and making tacos for breakfast, or better yet, let’s make them for brinner. Olé!

This chicken fajita inspired recipe is full of Mexican spices, beans and sweet bell peppers making for an easy and filling crock pot chili you will love.

You can call it crock pot. I often call it slow cooker. Tomato, tah-mah-toes, either way, slow cooking/rocking the crock is what’s for dinner.

Chicken chili in the crock pot makes for the perfectly easy dinner for weekend eats and is just one more truly, honestly, I promise it’s easy reason to get into the kitchen, rather than escaping it like Alcatraz.

I mean, isn’t it easier to cook at home on the weekends? Sure! But sometimes I’m left sporting a blank stare at my refrigerator shelves wondering what is going to magically appear after the day’s multitude of events and projects that have totally escaped my reach.

This recipe though? A little planning ahead, a few pantry staples, some pre-cooked chicken and a rainbow of bell peppers that never seem to grow old in the crisper is all you really need for a spiced up flavorful weekend comfort food dinner.

Just the thought of this recipe for BBQ Baked Beans makes the top of my mouth hurt. Because willpower and baking beans simply do not mix.

This is my mom’s baked beans recipe and with it comes a flood of summer memories. Of coming home after a full, hot day swimming, swimming, swimming and diving and flipping and flirting at the pool. Then finally home to the coolness of the air conditioned house where my mom often had these babies on the stove, percolating their way towards dinner.

It took just one step through the door and me and my swimsuit soaked shorts were making a beeline for the stove. There was always a wooden spoon sitting to the side, laced with the dried sauce from my mom’s stirring of the baked beans. One lick and that set off the need for more.

This healthy spin on classic Italian Wedding Soup is made lighter with turkey meatballs, white beans, and plenty of kale, all in a light and comforting broth.

We’re all feeling it, aren’t we? It wouldn’t be the New Year without focusing on cleaning up, clearing out and and cleansing from tip to toe.

Keeping with my new year tradition every single year, I’m taking advantage of my healthy resolve and I’m eating clean. This week. And maybe next. With just a side of butter and maybe a bite or six of cheese. And please, don’t hold it against me if there’s a nibble of chocolate here and there.

Balance, it’s the new black.

In thinking about eating strategies and menu planning, I still have cravings that need to be filled. Savory but simple. Filling and fortifying.

There are few things I enjoy more than spending an afternoon cuddled up with:

A: A warm body I love (Smudge, G Dawg or one of the pups all take first place),

B: Either my iPad loaded with new online mags to scroll through or a fresh batch of my favorite print titles to savor,

OR

C: A new cookbook to glean tasty inspiration from.

Lucky me, I have exactly three of those reasons to make a fresh iced coffee, kick off my shoes, and steal away for some “me” time but this time it’s with the debut cookbook from one of the web’s most popular food bloggers, Lori of Recipe Girl, appropriately titled The Recipe Girl Cookbook. Well said Lori.

Lori was one of the first food bloggers I discovered after being introduced to her blog by a friend of a friend. I had just started FoodieCrush and after blogging for a just a few months I boldly asked Lori if I could interview her. She was probably wondering what she got herself into, but graciously said yes to this newbie.

I got to know her a lot better on a blogger’s trip to visit Harry & David, and in person realized this girl not only knows food, but she’s generous and creative, offering advice when asked and encouraging others to reach their goals. Plus she likes a nice glass of wine. I can totally get down with a gal like that.

So when Lori asked me to take a look at her new cookbook, and cook and eat and share one of her recipes, it wasn’t hard to respond with an “Absolutely!” Send over the echo-sign, I’m in.

Everywhere you look and everything you hear is all about eating and cooking farm to table, with what’s fresh and in season. Add to this foodie phenom a plethora of fall squash—not just your everyday butternut or spaghetti—and I’m seeing some serious foodie cravings.

I’m squashing my squash craving (doh!) with this recipe I whipped up thanks to some gourds and pasilla peppers pulled from the garden before the first frost. It makes for a super easy party with friends.

These are the steps: Make it, heat it and serve it.

No last minute fuss, throw out a few bowls, some sliced baguette for dipping and you have time to sip a glass and visit with guests—the antithesis of my normal party-prep frenzy. I’m thinking the recipes was a success, given that I had 3 people asking for it.

I know I’m not alone. Kids can usually count their favorite dishes on fingers one, two, three, four and five (I know, five is a thumb, not technically a finger) with moms and dads coercing, conniving and conning their kids into eating a healthier version of their faves.

When Smudge was a toddler she looooved butternut squash, zucchini and even broccoli—or little trees as she called them. Cut to pre-school. Boom. It all went downhill. Any veggie put in front of her was taboo. Persona non grata. Hit the road jack and don’t come round here no more.

So when she came home from school and said she “just loves salads” I almost fell to the floor in shock. Who had stolen my child and how did this health cyborg take over her body?

The answer? Once again: school. Apparently, her 2nd grade friends have developed a far more sophisticated palette and the salad bar is a big hit with her tres-hip-gotta-be-like-them-friends. (I’m now packing salads IN HER LUNCH!)

So to satisfy her veggie craving for dinner, but not rocking the boat by proposing she dig into a big plate of brussels sprouts or spinach, we snuck in a layer of veggie goodness that even Magnum P.I. couldn’t sleuth out. We went straight to who knows best—my mother-in-law—and the secret ingredients in her taco meat recipe.

What’s her now-not-so-secret ingredients? V-8 juice and yellow corn meal. A serving of veggies in every glass—I hope there’s truth in advertising. But I do avoid V-8 Splash which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

Veggie adorned Nacho Taco Salads, a dish she loves assembling for herself, and being kids at heart, we love it too. Plus it is a DARN CLOSE facsimile of yo quiero Taco Bell.

What’s that Smudge? You want salsa with that too? He he he. Tthank you, we have crossed another food bridge.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

In a fry pan over medium-high heat, brown ground beef and onion together until beef is browned and onion is translucent. Add spices and simmer together for another 10 minutes. Add vegetable juice and cornmeal to beef mixture and simmer for 15 minutes or until juice has cooked down and the mixture has thickened, stirring occasionally. While meat is simmering, heat beans on low in a small saucepan. To serve, layer beans, nacho meat, cheese, lettuce and other condiments over tortilla chips as desired.

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And now, presenting…more ways to hoodwink your kids with a nudge to the healthier side of the table.

The kids are craving pizza and there’s no time to mix up a batch of dough or make a run for the store, so One Dish Dinners‘ Pizza Penne Bake keeps mom somewhat stable of mind thanks to less Erin’s one-pot-penne-and-pepperoni-pizza dish. Ahh mama mia!

The chorus of “thank you’s” serenade Edda for a much more interesting take on the frozen-mass-produced-nuggets that kids love as mothers speculate what exactly is that mystery meat. Un Déjuner de Soleil‘s Chicken Nuggets with Tandori Mustard still has the crunch kids love (thank you corn flakes) with a sauce parents won’t mind giving a dip themselves.

Far from the boxed version of “yellow death”, Eat Live Travel’s Write‘s Macaroni and Cheese with Cauliflower sneaks in whole wheat pasta, low fat sour cream and a dose of veggies so sublimely and secretly added that they’ll never know what they aren’t missing.

The countdown is on! Maria is receiving some great holiday cookie submissions from our foodie blogger friends and can’t wait to showcase them in our upcoming Winter Issue, and we’d love to see yours. Submit your holiday cookie by September 1 and share your sweetness with the world.

By the looks of so many of my favorite foodie blogs, everyone is searching—and providing—amazing zucchini recipes this week. And with the plethora of veggie madness these plants provide, I say the more recipes the better.

So in an attempt to utilize my excessive zucchini jungle (how does one squash manage to explode into a super-hero size veggie in 24 hours anyway?) I’m discovering as many recipes as possible to incorporate/mask/hide/add zucchini into.

And this is one of my new favorites. It’s a a chameleon of a recipe: serve as a meatless option for a vegetarian main dish or toss in some grilled chicken or canned white tuna for even more extra added protein.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

1 cup or 10 oz package queso fresco cheese, crumbled (you can also use any dry, white cheese such as feta)

Instructions

Cook the pasta in a saucepan of salted boiling water according to package directions or until al dente. Drain, rinse and set aside in a large bowl.

Blanche the green beans in a saucepan of simmering water for 1 minute. Remove and rinse with cold water, add to pasta. Add zucchini, garbanzo beans, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper and dill to pasta and beans and toss well to combine. Top with crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese. Refrigerate for one hour for flavors to marry. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

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And for those of you with the need to fill your ever-growing zucchini fantasies beyond zucchini bread or recipes of the stuffed squash variety, check out the tasty veggie vittles below.

Expanding on Adrianna’s ever-growing list of veggies-turned-into-fries, A Cozy Kitchen‘s Zucchini Fries are crunchy on the outside, creamy in the middle and by baking instead of frying, prep is way easier than trudging out your once-a-year-oily-mess of a Fry Daddy. Oh, and did we mention she serves them with Garlic Aioli and Sriracha Mayo? Helloooo breath mints! In the best way of course.

Nothing makes zucchini more palatable—and kid-pleasing—than mixing it up with some hazelnut-ty Nutella goodness from A Spicy Perspective. Sommer’s Zucchini Nutella Swirl Muffins look especially drool-worthy, and since she’s done the testing for us, there’s no need to tweak this recipe. Trust the process or you’ll be making it 4 times over like Sommer did.

In 101 Cookbooks‘ savory version of traditional cheesecake, Heidi suggests using a box grater or microplane for best zuch texture (best to avoid the potential for zucchini mush) and if so inclined you could drain the ricotta for an even lighter and fluffier Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake. If that were possible. Delicious!

I was intrigued by the roasted walnuts in this dish, a nut I hadn’t thought to pair with zucchini. Dishing the Divine keeps Zucchini with Walnuts a quick and light side dish thanks to an assortment of fresh herbs. But be sure to heed Paula’s sage advice and don’t let the zuchs get too browned when cooking or you’ll be eating a zucchini pureé.

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